CoLu Week
by anime-fan72
Summary: My submissions for CoLu Week. Day 1: Language. Day 2: Caged. Day 3: Fairy Tale. Day 4: Glitter. Day 5: Rumors. Day 6: Family. Day 7: Journey. Rated T for Cobra's potty mouth.
1. Chapter 1

**I decided to participate in CoLu Week! I forgot to post my drabbles for each day here, whoops. Hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail!**

Lucy would always study Cobra when Crime Sorciere came to visit. She worked hard to be discreet and succeeded (not that it was hard to go unnoticed in Fairy Tail's guild hall, Natsu's brawling occupied everyone's attention). With all the fighting around her, Cobra was not listening to her soul. Somehow, that both hurt and comforted the Celestial mage as she learned to read the Dragon Slayer's body language.

As she watched him over the course of several visits and analyzed his behavior in the months in between, the blonde learned Cobra's language. Usually shortly after arriving at Fairy Tail, his eye would narrow in annoyance. Lucy could then count down the seconds before he would go and join the brawl that ruined his hearing. He was rather easily annoyed from what she saw, but never truly angry. He avoided the bar, she noted. The explanation was clear when his shoulders would tense in a combination of fear and revulsion around Mira, no doubt a result of her matchmaking and baby fantasies.

So the Stellar Spirits mage learned to detect most of the Poison Slayer's emotions. He never dropped his act of snarky comebacks and a shit-eating smirk, but those small tells were enough. The way his eye softened slightly around his team, the people he trusted and who understood him the most. Lucy felt a twinge of jealousy when she saw that, no matter how hard she tried to push it down. _Of course_ he would feel the most comfortable around his team. _Of course_ he would love them (love is what shone through his eye, she knew because Lucy could spot that emotion the best). Simply because the blonde knew all of this does not mean it did not hurt her to realize that her love for him was unrequited.

She ended up reading Cobra wrong. He _had_ noticed her and he _did_ eventually make his interest in her known. The Celestial mage could not have been happier than the day he finally confessed. But even as her Dragon Slayer acquainted himself with the language of her soul, she kept hidden just how well she had studied his own language. She hid just how fluent she was in his own emotions. After all, Lucy needed to keep a few tricks up her sleeve to surprise him with.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: As always, I don't own Fairy Tail.**

Caged. Trapped. It was a feeling Cobra was far too familiar with. He hated it, hated feeling helpless. It's why he was so grateful to have Crime Sorciere (not that he would ever admit it). They all knew what being caged felt like. And for a while, he was foolish enough to believe they were the only ones who could understand his need for independence.

Then came his first visit to _that_ guild, _Fairy Tail_ , as a member of Crime Sorciere. Jellal had assured all of the former Oracion Seis that they would be welcomed warmly, but Cobra knew the others held misgivings. He did as well. How could they ever be welcomed by this guild that they had hurt so much?

The Soul Listening mage entered the noisy guild hall right behind Jellal and Meredy. If things turned violent, he was best suited to protect the others from getting hurt. He was surprised, pleasantly so, when he entered to find the hall was decorated for a party and Fairy Tail mages cheering happily. It was unexpected, incomprehensible, as the Dragon Slayer listened in on various souls to understand that their happiness, their kindness was genuine. When he picked one last soul to listen to, one last verification, his eye widened and he sought out the owner of the soul.

The Light of the Fairies herself, Lucy Heartfilia was standing in front of him, leading her guild in welcoming Crime Sorciere as if they were welcoming home lost family. The blonde was the person with the most reasons to hate him and his team members. And yet, her soul sang with forgiveness, with understanding.

Cobra watched as she stepped up to stand right in front of him. He heard the request in her soul, another shock. _Will you let me give you a hug?_ She had asked him for permission. She did not just take from him or trap him. He looked deeper into her soul and found the familiar pain and fear that existed in his own soul. She knew what it was like to be caged. He gave her a small nod and received a blinding smile in return as she softly enveloped him in her embrace.

She understood how precious freedom was to him, and she respected his right to choose. Her kind soul, the one which earned her the name "The Light of the Fairies", knew the pain and helplessness of being caged. She understood his fear, so she knew how to nullify it. They had both been caged, trapped, for years and years. They had been helpless and afraid. Now, they were free, but at a cost. They would never forget what they went through, but maybe they could move forward.

He suspected he would never come across someone who would understand his need for freedom as much as her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or Grimm's Fairy Tales.**

 _Based off The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was_

A man called Brain had adopted two sons. As he desired for them to uphold his image, he asked them what they would like to learn. The elder, Macbeth, wished to learn how to sleep deeply. He was henceforth called Midnight, for that was the only time he could be found awake. The younger, Erik, said he would like to learn true fear. The boy had been called Cobra since he had been taken in by Brain because of his love for snakes. A sexton named Richard, once known as Hoteye, told Brain that he could teach the boy. And so, Brian had Cobra move in with Richard. Richard taught Cobra how to ring the church bell, and had the boy ring it at midnight every night. Once, Richard followed Cobra, dressed as a ghost. Cobra demanded an explanation, as he could hear that it was Richard from his heartbeat and not an actual ghost. When Richard refused to answer, Cobra pushed him down the stairs in anger, breaking his leg.

Brain was disgusted at Cobra's treatment of his longtime ally, and so he turned the boy out of his house. Cobra set out to learn true fear, complaining whenever he could, "If only I could shudder!" He had seen others who felt true fear, and they all shuddered. So if he learned how to shudder, then would he not also learn true fear? A man named Vivaldus Taka advised the boy to stay the night beneath the gallows, where seven hanged men still hung (members of the gang Tartaros, hung for the crime of treason against the crown). Cobra did as Vivaldus recommended, and set a fire for the night. When the hanged bodies shook in the wind, Cobra thought they must be cold. (Also, the sound of their bodies shaking was unpleasant and he wished to sleep.) So he cut them down and sat them close to his fire, but they did not stir even when their clothing caught fire. (Cobra wished he had his old nuisance Natsu around to put out the fire. While the pink-haired idiot was a pyromaniac, Cobra happened to hate flames.) Annoyed at the corpses' "carelessness" (he was never going to admit it was his own fault), the boy hung them back up in the gallows.

After the incident at the gallows, Cobra traveled with a waggoner named Sawyer. Sawyer had once been a horse racer, one of the best, but he had retired the name Racer after an unfortunate accident. One night, they arrived at the inn Fairy Tail where the inn-keeper, Makarov, told Cobra that if he wanted to know how to shudder, he should visit the haunted Phantom Lord castle nearby. If the boy could manage to stay there for three nights in a row, he could learn how to shudder. As a bonus, he would also win the king's daughter and all of the treasures in the castle. Makarov's eyes gleamed perversely at the mention of the princess and Cobra tried to tune out the inn-keeper's heartbeat. Cobra was warned that many men had tried, but none had yet succeeded.

Even so, the boy accepted the challenge and went to King Jude. The king agreed, and told Cobra that he may bring with him three non-living things into the castle. The boy asked for a fire, a lathe, and a cutting board with a knife.

The first night, the boy heard two voices in the corner of his room moan, complaining about the cold. Annoyed at their constant whining, he told the owners of the voices that they were stupid not to warm themselves with the fire. Suddenly, two cats, one white and one blue, jumped out of the corner and proposed a card game to the calm boy. Cobra tricked the cats and trapped them with his cutting board and knife. More cats, in all colors, emerged from every patch of darkness in the room, and the boy was forced to fight off each of them with his knife. One, a black cat with a scar over its eye, put up a good fight, taking Cobra's right eye. He bandaged it with scraps from his shirt as a bed appeared. He lay on it, ready to sleep, but it began walking all over the castle. Both frustrated at losing sleep and excited, Cobra urged the bed to go faster. It turned upside down on him, so he simply tossed it aside and slept next to the fire until morning.

As he prepared for his second night, half a man fell down the chimney. Disgusted and annoyed at losing the use of the fireplace, he shouted up the chimney that the other half was needed. Cobra said this in jest, but the other half heard him and fell to reunite with the rest. More men followed, the old gang of Eisenwald which had been killed when they tried to start a criminal revolution, holding human skulls and dead men's legs with which to play nine-pins. The boy was amused that the legs and skulls came from the men who killed the members of Eisenwald, soldiers cut down by the plague just at the peak of victory, and shaped the skulls into better balls with his lathe. Cobra joined the men in the game until midnight, when they vanished into thin air.

On the third and final night, Cobra heard a strange noise. Six men, members of the Tower of Heaven cult, entered his room, carrying a coffin. He was unafraid but upset, believing the body to be one of his old friends, Sorano. He tried to warm it, but it came back to life. Confused as to why she was not yet truly an Angel, she threatened to strangle him when he remarked that she was not ladylike enough to become one. Slightly pissed off, Cobra slammed the coffin closed on her again. An old man came to see him, having heard Cobra's argument with the fake Sorano. The two visited with each other and Cobra learned the old man was Jose Porla, owner of the Phantom Lord castle. Jose bragged that he could knock an anvil straight to the ground. Cobra was not inclined to believe his word, so Jose took the boy to the basement. While Jose was showing off his trick, Cobra split the anvil and trapped Jose's hair in it. Having overheard Makarov's conversation with Sawyer about the old master of Phantom Lord castle and the horrible deeds he had committed, Cobra felt justified in returning a little pain to the man with an iron rod. Desperate for mercy, Jose showed Cobra all of the treasures of his castle before vanishing into thin air.

The following morning, King Jude told Cobra that he could win his lovely daughter, Lucy. The boy refused, uninterested in winning the princess as if she was some sort of prize. Jude was furious, but the princess, having overheard the conversation, entered at that moment and declared this boy was her new favorite and her father would not lay a hand on him.

The boy moved into the castle and became friends with the princess. He still complained about how he still had not learned how to shudder, so after he finally wed Princess Lucy, she dumped a bucket of freezing water over his head while he slept. Waking with a shudder, he found he still did not know what true fear was. (He would discover what it was when his beloved wife went through labor to deliver their first child, Layla.)


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: As always, I don't own Fairy Tail.**

Cobra glared at the piece of paper. _Who the fuck would take paper coated in glitter and write on it with more glitter?_ The Poison Slayer hated the stuff. The Demon Dust was too distracting, too desperate, for his tastes. He preferred to go mostly unnoticed. Glitter was too attention-grabbing and feminine.

"You know, glaring at it won't make it go away." The maroon-haired man turned his glare onto his best friend sitting next to him at the bar. Midnight kept his eyes closed, used to his life being threatened by the Soul Listening mage. A glare was not going to bother the Reflector mage. "So are you going to do what it says?"

Cobra looked over the offending paper once more before tossing it onto the bar. He did not reply. The two former Oracion Seis members already knew his curiosity would force him to comply, even if Cobra hated the method of delivery.

And that is how the Dragon Slayer found himself following a trail of glitter through the woods in the middle of the night. _I'm going to fucking poison whoever designed this shit. I can feel the glitter sticking to me, and I'm not even fucking touching it._ Stewing in his annoyance at the glitter, it was no wonder he did not notice when another soul appeared before him.

It was not until the other person laughed at his discomfort that Cobra noticed his surroundings. The trail of glitter had ended in a candlelit clearing with a picnic set out in the middle. Standing right in front of him was the girl of his dreams, the one he had been lucky to be dating for a year now, Lucy Heartfilia.

"You know, there were easier ways to get me to come out here," he grumbled. One quick listen, and her entire plan for their anniversary was revealed by her soul. "You didn't need to use fucking glitter and get it everywhere."

"Aw, but where's the fun in that," the blonde purred. She tugged the reluctant Slayer over to the picnic and forced him to sit next to her. "I just wanted you to get a sneak peak of what was waiting for you here."

"What the hell are you talking about, Blondie? There's no glitter over here." And thank Mavis for that. If there had been any glitter in the actual clearing, neither of the two mages would have been able to get rid of it for months. Glitter just had a habit of sticking and never letting go.

"Yes there is! Look up!" The Celestial mage pointed to the sky. The stars sparkled and shone, much like the glitter that had led him here. The two sat and watched the glitter in the sky until the sun rose. It was peaceful, relaxing. And Cobra could not deny that the night sky was beautiful.

So maybe Cobra did not hate glitter as much anymore. But he still stayed far away from the Demon Dust after finding bits stuck to him weeks afterwards.


	5. Chapter 5

**This was definitely fun to write.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.**

For a guild with four Dragon Slayers, a tarot card reader, and a Telepath, Fairy Tail had a lot of rumors swirling around its members. For instance, the ever so popular rumor that the Rain Woman, Juvia of the Deep had been stolen away for a romantic night by Lamia Scale's Lyon Vastia, and that when Gray Fullbuster found out, he did not immediately confront the two. Instead, he joined them for a night of romantic debauchery.

Of course, if one were to ask one of the Dragon Slayers of the guild, not Natsu because he is too oblivious, maybe Gajeel or Laxus if they are in a good mood, Wendy if you can get away with it (and Cana and Mira certainly can), then one would know that Gray can barely stand being in the same room as the other Ice Make mage, that Juvia is too loyal to Gray to ever fall for Lyon, and that even if she did, Lyon would never let Gray join the two.

Then there is the other popular (but only in secret) rumor swirling around Titania Erza Scarlet, the Queen of the Fairies herself. The one that somewhere between keeping Natsu in line and obsessing over cake Erza had managed to snag fugitive Jellal Fernandes as her romantic interest. This was a highly popular rumor, but only when Erza was not around to knock people out for gossiping instead of working.

The most rumors, though, centered on the guild's sweet Celestial mage, Lucy Heartfilia, the Light of the Fairies. The one about how she and her partner Natsu "Salamander" Dragneel sleep together at night. The one about a love triangle (square? rhombus? rectangle? pentagon?) between her, Natsu, Gray, Juvia, and Lyon. (If you would like details on that one, just ask Mira for the diagram. If you would like to place a bet on the pairings, just ask Cana. The pool has been steadily increasing for years. I heard the most popular ship is the one where all five of them just get together… Well, I don't think you need me to spell it out for you.)

So when Crime Sorciere comes to visit, it is only natural that the gossip mill starts churning even faster. Especially when Midnight sits and falls asleep on the bar without getting yelled at by Mira, Angel manages to snag Gray from the ongoing daily brawl, Erza disappears with Jellal in tow, and the poisonous asshole himself sits next to Lucy. Meredy immediately joins her partners in crime (or shipping, depending on who you ask) at the bar next to the sleeping Midnight. She, Mira, Cana, and Happy begin planning how to get their new favorite ship together, and _how did they not see how perfect the two were together before?_

The two in question remain blissfully ignorant of their friends' scheming, Lucy because she is too busy thinking up new insults to throw at her boyfriend and Cobra because he learned that those four have the scariest and creepiest souls he ever had the displeasure of listening to and tunes them out as much as possible. They have been lucky so far in not getting caught and interrogated about their relationship, but they both know it could not last forever.

Today was the day that they were going to announce their relationship to their guild mates. Time for the gossip mill to really get started.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.**

For the longest time, Lucy had felt completely alone. The time she had spent at the Heartfilia mansion had been one of long days spent alone and longer nights spent crying. Then she had run away and found Fairy Tail. She was no longer alone, not with her teammates constantly inviting themselves over to her apartment and Natsu sneaking into her bed.

Now she had a family. Natsu and Gray were her over-protective older brothers. Erza was her older sister and Happy was the annoying little brother she never wanted but would never give up. Mira was like an older sister/aunt/mother and Cana was like another, more openly perverted, older sister. Wendy was her younger sister. Gajeel and Laxus were two more older brothers.

And that was just the tip of the iceberg. There was Gildarts, Makarov, Macao, and Wakaba serving as (perverted) father figures. There was Romeo and Asuna and Bisca and Alzack. Lucy also had family outside of Fairy Tail, like Yukino in Sabertooth and Sherry in Lamia Scale. We haven't even touched on her spirits.

Her family was huge and crazy and she would never change them for the world. They were perfectly imperfect the way they were.

Cobra was nearly never alone, from what he can remember. He cannot remember anything really form before the Tower, and there was only a short period while he was there without Cubellios, or Kina. Then there was the Oracion Seis, Midnight, Angel, Racer, Hoteye. He would never admit it to them, and they would not either, but the five had become family. And now there was Meredy and Jellal too, though he was never going to admit he actually cared for either of the two.

So when the Poison Slayer met the Celestial mage and actually had a conversation with her, he was surprised to find that her soul sang with the familiar melody of loneliness. Here was someone who understood.

Lucy, for her part, saw that loneliness hidden in his remaining eye. She would never have seen it if she did not know what it looked like in her own eyes. She was shocked to see such a "weak" emotion in the Dragon Slayer, but she understood too. Loneliness affects us all.

With that mutual understanding of loneliness, the two found they could open up to each other, admit to their pain and sadness. They discussed their pasts and what the scars left behind mean. They had their crazy families to stop them from being physically alone, but now they had each other, too, to stop them from being emotionally alone.

It was a new way of looking at family for them. They each loved their family, no matter how crazy each member of it was, but sometimes it was difficult to talk with them about how the two felt. With each other, though, they never had to worry about what they said. Their souls sang such similar songs that misunderstandings did not happen. They could understand what the other meant. Their new family, made up of Fairy Tail, Crime Sorciere, Lamia Scale, Sabertooth, and nearly every other major guild, was larger than was logical and more insane than was safe for the members, but it was perfectly imperfect. With their loneliness abated, Cobra and Lucy could enjoy being with their family more, throwing themselves into all the antics.

Both had been lonely for long periods of their lives. Cobra, during his time at the Tower and most of his time as a member of the Oracion Seis, and Lucy, during her time at the Heartfilia mansion. Both now had an enormous, crazy family that they would never give up, never change. It was a place where they were accepted and loved, where they were cared for. They had finally found their place in the world, right at each other's side, and it was the happiest place they never dreamed it could be.


	7. Chapter 7

**Last day! I'm not sure how much I like this, but oh well. I hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.**

Life is a journey. Common saying right? The adventure is what counts, not the destination. Another common saying. Lucy had heard them and all the different versions of them in her life.

She had been skeptical about their accuracy until she became a part of Fairy Tail. Among all the crazy adventures and difficult fights, she had come to believe in the journey wholeheartedly. For it did not truly matter whether or not fairies have tails, but the road you take to find the answer. A never-ending adventure.

Cobra had always been told the destination is what matters. The end justifies the means. Just get results, no matter what you have to do or who you have to crush along the way. It was a way of thinking that he had accepted easily, and Brain had rewarded him for it by allowing the Poison Slayer to keep Cubellios. As long as he never lost, he would get to keep his best friend.

As a member of Crime Sorciere, and then eventually Fairy Tail, he had been forced to rethink some of his methods. No heavy torture, no threatening innocents, and definitely no killing. He was stubborn, so the change was worse than pulling teeth without anesthetic. He also felt that limiting his means to get results limited his freedom, and after being enslaved (literally in the Tower and more figuratively or emotionally by Brain) for so long, he hated anything that limited his freedom.

He came around eventually, and even came to enjoy it, as no one could stop him from threatening and mentally scarring dark mage's with graphic torture. It was quite satisfying to hear their souls scream in terror or grovel and beg for mercy. It was even more satisfying to know Jellal (that annoying blueberry cheesecake) could not complain, because Cobra had not broken any rules and the Soul Listening mage got what information they needed for their missions.

So, neither Lucy nor Cobra had any second thoughts, cold feet, or doubts when it came for them to take the next step in their relationship. As the blonde walked down the aisle on the arm of her Spirit, Capricorn, and Cobra stood at the altar with Midnight as his best man, Makarov and Mavis officiating, and Erza as the maid of honor, the two mage's felt that they were ready to take on life's journey and all the insane twists and turns it would throw at them as members of Fairy Tail together. Life is a journey, but it is not a journey you have to take alone. If you find someone willing to run through the light and walk through the shadows with you, then bring them along for the ride. As Natsu would say, it's always more fun when we're together!


End file.
